Friday, August 30, 2013

BEIJING, Aug. 29 (Xinhua) -- The Liaoning is the Chinese military's
first aircraft carrier, but there will surely be more in future, a
Ministry of National Defence spokesman said on Thursday.
China will comprehensively consider the development of aircraft
carriers in accordance with the needs of national defense and military
building, spokesman Yang Yujun said.
Yang made the comment at a news briefing when asked to confirm
media reports that China is producing its first domestically made
aircraft carrier.
Currently, China operates one aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, which
was refitted based on an unfinished Russian-made carrier and delivered
to the Chinese Navy on Sept. 25, 2012.
The carrier's original design allows it to carry about 30 fixed-wing aircraft.
The Liaoning has conducted successful take-off and landing tests of
its carrier-borne J-15 fighters, the main strike force of China's
carrier group.

Thursday, August 01, 2013

IDENTIFIED UNDER CONSTRUCTION: China's Second Aircraft Carrier

Pictures surfaced today of a module at Shanghai's Changxing Island
Shipyard appear to be proof of a second Chinese carrier under
construction. Besides the telltale profile of the inner hull of a
KUZNETSOV-class carrier, the module features a well-defined hangar and
elevator cutout.

Additionally
a possible catapult trench has been identified, lending credence to
postulation that this first all-Chinese carrier will be a refinement of
the LIAONING/EX-VARYAG Soviet design, most likely designated 001A-class.

Log in to the China-Defense Forum for additional discussion about this and other Chinese military developments.

The Chinese M99 50-caliber Anti-material Rifle was little known in the West until video clips of it being used by the Free Syrian Army in the current Syrian civil war were showing up in the Internet. The fact is that the M99 has been available since late 2005 and it is in use in anti-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden by the Chinese Navy and Marine Corps. Please note that the Chinese military has stopped using the idiom of PLA or People’s Liberation Army in its name about three years ago.....

Thursday, August 29, 2013

The Chinese and Pakistani air forces will hold a joint exercise next week in a region bordering Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

The joint drill will be held during September 2-22 in China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the Chinese Defence Ministry said on Thursday.

The exercise, code-named Shaheen (Eagle)-2, is another cooperative project between the two air forces after the Shaheen-1 drill in Pakistan in March 2011, Defence Ministry spokesman Yang Yujun told a briefing for the local media.

The HiH exercises, the first two editions of which were held at Kunming (China) in 2007 and Belgaum (Karnataka) in 2008, were frozen after diplomatic spats over visa and other issues in 2009-10. Though largely symbolic with just around 100 to 150 soldiers from each side undertaking counter-terror drills, the exercise is seen as a major confidence-building measure between the world's largest and second-largest armies ranged against each other along the 4,057-km LAC.

The decision to hold the third round of the HiH exercise was firmed up during the visit of Antony, accompanied by a high-level delegation, to China earlier this month. India is keen to progressively enhance military ties with China, keep "communication channels open" and "eliminate potential" for Depsang-like incidents to reoccur.

Anotny recently described the 21-day face-off in April-May - the two rival armies had pitched tents and carried out banner drills after PLA troops intruded 19 km into Depsang valley in the Daulat Beg Oldi (DBO) sector in eastern Ladakh - as "an unusual" incident. The two sides will soon hold another round of the joint working group in Beijing to find a solution to prevent such "unpleasant incidents" and "embarrassing" face-offs, he said.

Sunday, August 25, 2013

Chinese ships head for search exercises with US Navy as Beijing ramps up military diplomacyBy Associated Press,August 20, 2013

BEIJING — Three Chinese ships are sailing east to join rare naval drills with the United States as Beijing ramps up its military diplomacy amid regional territorial disputes and other tensions.

The ships left the port of Qingdao on Tuesday to participate in search-and-rescue drills with the U.S. Navy in the waters off Hawaii. Afterward, the ships will continue on to Australia and New Zealand for similar exercises

The naval drills build on a commitment to create stronger ties made by President Barack Obama and Chinese leader Xi Jinping at a June summit in California, and are an “important mission of military diplomacy,” deputy navy commander Xu Hongmeng said, according to the military’s official newspaper, People’s Liberation Army Daily.

There have been only a handful of exercises at sea involving the two countries’ navies, and this week’s drills are the first since an unprecedented joint anti-piracy exercise was held last year off Somalia.

Taihu only commissioned in June 2013 and now it is rushed into a foreign deployment. It goes to show how desperate the PLAN is regarding the need of Replenishment Tankers.

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90786/8353801.html15th Chinese naval escort taskforce holds rally before sailing to Gulf of AdenThe 15th escort taskforce under the Navy of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLAN) which will go to the Gulf of Aden and the waters off the Somali coast to take over the escort mission from the 14th Chinese naval escort taskforce held a rally yesterday morning at a naval port in Zhanjiang of south China's Guangdong province.Commander Jiang Weilie of the PLAN South China Sea Fleet chaired the meeting, and Wang Dengping, political commissar of the South China Sea Fleet, addressed the meeting and encouraged all the officers and men to complete the escort mission.Jiang Zhonghua, commander of the 15th Chinese naval escort taskforce and director of the Armaments Department of the South China Sea Fleet, and Liu Zhonghu, captain of the amphibious dock landing ship Jinggangshan, delivered a speech on behalf of the taskforce and all the officers and men respectively.The 15th Chinese naval escort taskforce is composed of the guided missile frigate Hengshui, the amphibious dock landing ship Jinggangshan and the comprehensive supply ship Taihu.

Guangzhou HuangPu's Milk Cow

Monday, January 14, 2013

With impressive building speed of launch to first sea trial in just 9 months, the China navy must be needing those new milk cows bad. Don't be surprise to see those two supporting Gulf of Aden anti piracy operations by year end.